Amazon vs Reliance: Future of retail supremacy in India hangs in balance
India Today
Amazon argued that FRL violated their contract by entering into a deal for the sale of its assets to billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail on a slump sale basis for Rs 24,500 crore.
Amazon and Future group have been locked in a complex legal stand-off for more than a year now. This has stalled Future's Rs 24,500 crore sale of assets to rival Reliance Industries.
While Amazon and Future agreed to out-of-court settlement discussions earlier this month, the two sides informed the Supreme Court on March 15 that they had failed to resolve the matter.
Amazon has apprehended the "disappearance” of assets and sought an interim order from the Supreme Court to ensure the preservation of assets of Future Retail Ltd besides resumption of arbitration over FRL’s merger deal with Reliance Retail.
A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli took note of the allegations of the US firm that the “applecart was being upset” by its rivals and asked the Future group firms, FRL and Future Coupons Ltd (FCPL), to respond to the interim plea of Amazon seeking resumption of arbitration and preservation of assets and fixed the hearing on March 23.
India's Future Retail said on Wednesday it was committed to taking back its stores which were seized by rival Reliance, saying it had been surprised by the move.
Reliance, India's biggest retailer, stunned Future on February 25 with its staff suddenly showing up at many of Future's biggest stores to assume control, in what was seen as a de facto takeover.
In a statement to Indian stock exchanges on Wednesday, Future said it was committed to take all action to seek "reversal of takeover of the stores" by Reliance.
